Lady Bug is an insect-themed maze chase arcade game produced by Universal Games and released in 1981. Its gameplay was inspired by Pac-Man but with several additions to the formula, such as the ability to alter the layout of the maze through gate-shifting.
The goal of Lady Bug is to eat all "flowers", hearts and letters in the maze while avoiding other insects. The player is represented by a red, yellow, and green character resembling a ladybug while the enemy insects' appearance varies by level. The border of the maze acts as timer, with each circuit signaling the release of an enemy insect from the central area, up to (generally) a maximum of four. The speed of the circuit increases on stages 2 and 5.
Unlike the more famous Pac-Man, the player can alter the layout of the maze by shifting any of the twenty green gates. It is not possible to completely isolate a portion of the maze through gate-shifting.
When the fourth enemy insect enters the maze, the central area will show a level-specific vegetable. Eating a vegetable gives the player bonus points and immobilizes the enemy insects for several seconds, though touching them is still lethal. The randomly placed skull icons are lethal to ladybugs and enemy insects. An enemy insect who dies returns to the central area. Once a vegetable is eaten, the central area will remain empty unless an enemy insect dies and is re-released, revealing a new vegetable. A ladybug who dies will shrink from view and be briefly replaced with icons resembling the stereotypical wings and halo of an angel.
If a heart is consumed while it is blue, a point multiplier will come into effect, indicated by the blue section in the upper right corner of the screen. The first blue heart doubles all point values, the second triples them and the third quintuples them. This multiplier lasts until the level is complete. Eating hearts while they are yellow or red offers no benefit beyond the points collected.
At each level, the maze will contain three letters. One will be randomly selected from the set of {S, P, C, I, L} (which appear only in SPECIAL), one will be randomly selected from the set of {X, T, R} (which appear only in EXTRA) and the third will be an A or an E (which appear in both words). A secondary goal of the player is to complete the words SPECIAL (indicated in red in the top left corner) and EXTRA (in yellow at top center). If, for example, a letter S is consumed while it is red, the corresponding letter in the word SPECIAL will change from grey to red. Eating an S while it is any other color (or if the S in SPECIAL is already red) offers no benefit beyond the points collected. Completing the word SPECIAL rewards the player with a free game, while completing EXTRA gives the player an extra life. Completing either word causes all its letters to return to normal and immediately advances the player to the next level.
Released
1981
Also For
ColecoVision, Intellivision
Developed by
Universal Co., Ltd.
Published by
Universal Co., Ltd.
Gameplay
Arcade
Perspective
Top-down
Genre
Action
Visual
Fixed / flip-screen
Description
An action game in the same style as Pac-Man but very very different. Players control a ladybug who must venture around different mazes collecting all of the food pellet "x"'s. In addition to there being regular lines of wall in the maze, there are also several rotating doors that can be used to trap enemies and escape. In fact these rotating doors are the key to survival in this game. In the center of each maze is a different enemy insect hive that will spawn out enemy creatures. An new enemy creature is spawned every time the border around the screen makes a complete "lap". Timers for the border vary upon the level, so later levels will generate new enemies faster, thus progression through the game brings smarter, faster and more quickly spawning enemies.
In addition to the collection of X's, each maze also contains a variety of powerups that come in three types: Poison, Letters and Hearts. Poison is deadly both to the player and the enemy. If the player is able to lure and enemy creature into a poison powerup, it will die and be removed from gameplay. Letters and hearts are powerups with multiple conditions: Collected at the right time they will add letters that will eventually spell words providing bonuses. However collected during the the improper time will only earn the player a few points. For most of the gameplay the colour of all powerups (except skulls which are unaffected) will be blue. But every few seconds it will cycle through yellow and then red colours. Grabbing a letter when flashing the colour will add it to that colour's word. The red word is "SPECIAL" and the yellow word is "EXTRA". Spelling the word, EXTRA gains the player an extra life, and spelling the word, SPECIAL brings the player to a special bonus round.
Hearts are best used as blue powerups as they will act as multipliers for the X's being picked up, first as 2x, then as 3x and finally as 5x. Multipliers are lost when the player dies, but letter powerups are not.
From Mobygames.com. Original Entry
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